Being something of a perfume and stationery geek, when I heard the French perfume company Le Labo (which makes one of my favourite rose perfumes, Rose 31) made a note book impregnated with scent, I just had to find out more. Any excuse to nip to Liberty really, where the perfume is sold in the UK.
Pictured above, it really is lovely. The cover has a masculine feel, with metal rivets bonding the charcoal card cover and there’s a sturdy elastic which wraps around the open end (essential for one of my working note books as I am always sticking things to pages which then fall out). Inside the pages are brown-paper-coloured and have ridges embossed in them which hint at looking like music paper. Each book has an individual serial number printed on the inside cover.
And then there’s the smell…The note book is scented with Santal 26, a smokey, leathery perfume that is one of Le Labo’s best selling interior smells. The paper, which is entirely recycled, is lightly scented with perfume when it is made and the cover is also steeped in the smell, so you can scratch and sniff (or scribe and sniff perhaps) to evoke a fragrant atmosphere as you work. At £30 each this is a special present, but rather a lovely one. I’m definitely giving these away as Christmas gifts. It doesn’t seem to be for sale via Liberty’s website, but there’s plenty in store.
And then I got to thinking….
When I wrote about Avery a while back, I stuck the scented feathers the store uses as perfume testers in my little black note book and ever since the pages have been dreamily scented with Black Afgano and Narcotic Venus. So I thought I’d have a go at making my own perfume note books, using a Moleskin Volant double pack (pink, ruled lines and £9.95 for two, pictures below and also bought at Liberty) and some samples of Grossmith’s lovely smells that I have been using for research on the brand (more of this company in a future post).
I sprayed about one quarter of the sample onto the pages of the note book with one hand as I flipped the pages from front to back with the other. Worked a treat. I now have fragrance-personalised note books. I’m not sure how long the pages will keep smelling for, but the ones in my current working note book are still going strong and the feathers have been there since mid June. I’m thinking we could go into business here…..
